Electronic Arts

The official YouTube channel for Unravel  has released a video delving into the inspiration in creating Yarny, the quiet protagonist. The character was imagined by Martin Sahlin, Coldwood Interactive’s Creative …
Read More

A video game, especially an independently developed one, that doesn’t have any combat in it isn’t as unusual a find in 2016 as it once was. But certain types of …
Read More

Another year has come and gone, and with 2015 now firmly in the rearview, it’s time to look forward to the biggest Xbox One game releases of 2016. Well, the …
Read More

Unravel, a physics-based puzzle platformer from Coldwood Interactive and Electronic Arts, will be releasing on February 9, 2016 for $19.99. Members of EA Access will be able to play Unravel before …
Read More

Microsoft’s Games With Gold program, in which Xbox Live Gold (XBLG) members are given one Xbox One and two Xbox 360 games each month as part of their subscription, is …
Read More

Today at its pre-E3 press conference, Electronic Arts showed off Unravel, a puzzle-platformer from indie developer Coldwood.

Yarny, the game’s protagonist, is a diminutive character who seems destined to forever be described as a yarn version of LittleBigPlanet‘s Sackboy. Yarny is made of a single thread of twine that, as the game’s title implies, unravels as players progress through Northern Scandinavian levels.

In the gameplay trailer below, the little guy uses his own body’s twine to swing and climb through the game world and even to catch a ride on a flying kite. Throughout Unraveled, players will have to manage the fact that Yarny is constantly unraveling when moving. That means they’ll have to think carefully about what paths they should take and how they can best use the trailing twine to solve puzzles.

Read More

The team behind last year’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has started a new studio called Hazelight, headed by the Brothers director Josef Fares. Electronic Arts is publishing their first game, teased in the screenshot above. It does not yet have a title.

Fares’ success with Brothers came after many successful works in film. “Movies are a great way of telling a story,” he says, “but the potential of interactive storytelling through games is even greater.” After the emotional journey that Brothers was, he has a point.

When inquired, Hazelight told us “We are not at AAA level budget-wise. We are a comparably small team in the area of 20-25 employees.” In other words, they are right up our alley. Check out the teaser for their new game below.

Read More

In the eight months immediately following the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches in November of 2013, Sony, riding high on major public relations victories over Microsoft, led next-gen console sales by a supposed margin of nearly two to one. Despite selling at a pace much quicker than the last-gen-market-leading Xbox 360 did during the same point in its life cycle, the Xbox One was lagging far behind the PlayStation 4 in market share.

So Microsoft made some changes.

Executives Don Mattrick and Marc Whitten left the company. Phil Spencer took over as the head of the Xbox team. Kinect was unbundled from the console. Larger multimedia initiatives were cut entirely or made ancillary in favor of a focus on gaming first and foremost. Finally, the Xbox One’s price was temporarily (for the holidays) dropped to $350 with a $60 retail game bundled in.

Those maneuvers seem to be paying off, as data reporting firm InfoScout found that the Xbox One enjoyed a Black Friday sales lead of 22 percent over the PlayStation 4, according to data compiled from more than 180,000 sales receipts. InfoScout followed up by conducting a survey of 350 consumers who purchased a console on Black Friday, and found that 71 percent of Xbox One buyers cited cost as a major influence on their purchase. Comparatively, just 48 percent of PlayStation 4 buyers surveyed indicated that price played a major role in their purchase decision.

Read More

Peggle 2 was developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released December 8, 2013, on the Xbox One for $11.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

With the follow-up to its 2009 smash hit Peggle, PopCap Games has delivered a quality game that not only challenges the player, but provides hours of entertainment at the same time. Fans of the original will be happy to know the development team didn’t tinker with what was already a great formula. Instead, PopCap has expanded upon its existing efforts, and by doing so, has made Peggle 2 an extremely fun and addictive title for the Xbox One.

With over 120 levels to play through, Peggle 2 has tons of content to offer eager peg-smashers. PopCap has also introduced new masters that enhance the experience by drastically altering the way the game is played, making each master feel unique. A fun and simple online mode has also been added to the mix, allowing for players to quickly jump into games and compete against others, trying to achieve the highest score with a 10-ball limit set in place. The ease with which you drop into matches is the biggest draw, and is something that’s seen throughout the game, as accessing content is generally fast and snappy.

Read More

Electronic Arts today announced a new title in its Plants vs. Zombies franchise to be released on the Xbox One. Revealed during the publisher’s E3 media briefing, Plants vs. …
Read More